Congress overconfident in Haryana, says Chavan

Mumbai: Former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on Tuesday said the Congress had been overconfident in Haryana as he expressed shock over the outcome of the assembly election there.
NCP working president and MP Praful Patel said the result reflected people's faith in the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. His party chief, Ajit Pawar, said the Haryana election results proved that Congress functionaries had a habit of making tall claims about poll outcomes but they were defeated by the people.
Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said what happened in Haryana was expected to be repeated here in Nov. "Haryana reposed trust once again in Prime Minister Narendra Modi. After the Lok Sabha election, I said we did not lose [in Maharashtra] to the opposition. We lost to the fake narrative," he said.
Taking a dig at Shiv Sena (UBT) MP and spokesperson Sanjay Raut, he said he wanted to ask "the morning 9 am loudspeaker" how it feels now.
State BJP President Chandrashekhar Bawankule said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's statement in the US had exposed the anti-reservation face of Congress. "People believed only the BJP could protect life, property, and the Constitution. It will have repercussions in Maharashtra. BJP Ghar Chalo Abhiyan will be implemented to defeat the dirty politics of the Maharashtra opposition. Every BJP worker will reach voters and remove the confusion created by the Congress and deliver the development work of the state and central govt," he said.
Chavan, MPCC in-charge for the state Ramesh Chennithala, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi and NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule said the conditions and issues in Haryana and the state were totally different and the BJP victory there would not change things here.
Chavan said the Congress failed to assess the political situation at the grassroot level. "Our assumption was that the people of Haryana were unhappy with the BJP owing to its anti-farmer and anti-people policies. The outcome calls for self-introspection for the Congress, since all along it was believed that the political situation in Haryana was in favour of the Congress," Chavan said.
He said the BJP win in Haryana would "certainly have some impact" on the assembly election here but it would not be a major adverse impact. "The issues in Haryana are completely different from issues in Maharashtra. It appears that we lost the Haryana elections owing to intra-party disputes," Chavan said.
NCP MP Patel said the opposition made all attempts to create a fake narrative against the BJP in Haryana. "The INDI alliance had spread rumours through the media that Congress was all set to form the govt in Haryana," Patel said.
He said the INDI alliance said the BJP was against farmers but it was false.
Priyanka Chaturvedi of the Shiv Sena (UBT) said the BJP won despite anti-incumbency and the Congress would now have to rework the entire alliance. "... [It] will have to take a re-look at its own battle plans, look within itself, and take into account that whenever there is a direct fight with BJP, Congress seems to be falling weak," she said.
NCP (SP) working president and Baramati MP Supriya Sule expressed surprise over the Haryana results.
(Inputs from agencies)